Fellows in Residence

Architecture

Doris Sung

Architect, Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Southern California – United States

Doris Sung brings active systems to sustainable design far beyond the simple "greening" of a building. With the belief that buildings can be more sensitive to the changing environment like human skin, she seeks ways to make the building skin dynamic and responsive. Through grant-funded research, she is developing smart materials, such as thermobimetals, to self-ventilate, self-shade, self-structure, self-assemble and self-propel in response to changes in temperatures--all with zero-energy and no controls.

Witnessing smart materials move on their own is magical. For this purpose, this residency will be used to refine a series of pop-up designs made of paper and thermobimetal (a material that curls when heated). They will be distributed as literal laptop dynamic exhibitions in a book format. Additional time will be spent on refining the text and graphics of the publication. The pop-up pages will be arranged in a sunny interior location to freely react to the moving sun at the Bogliasco Foundation.

Dance

Tess Dworman

Choreographer and performer – United States

Tess Dworman is a Brooklyn-based choreographer, performer, and audio describer. In New York, her work has been presented by many institutions including Abrons Art Center, the Chocolate Factory Theater, and Pageant. She performed and toured extensively in the work of Tere O’Connor and Juliana F. May. In 2020, Tess was honored as an “Outstanding Breakout Choreographer” by the Bessie New York Dance & Performance Awards.

During her fellowship, Tess will continue to develop a project entitled “The Con,” which merges her research in dance, impersonation, stand-up comedy, documentary filmmaking, and audio description. These forms come together through her longtime practice of solo improvisation. The ground for this work is a satirical questioning into the consumption of experimental performance, capitalistic provocations on liveness and presence, and the ethos of experimental performance in this time.

Film/Video

Lisa Leeman

Writer/director/producer, Professor of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California – United States

Lisa Leeman has been making award-winning documentary films for thirty-five years. Her cinematic portraits illuminate contemporary social issues through intimate character-driven stories, filmed over many years, as people navigate critical turning points. Leeman’s acclaimed films include Metamorphosis, One Lucky Elephant, Out of Faith, Who Needs Sleep, and Awake. She is a member of the Motion Picture Academy, a tenured Professor of Cinematic Arts and endowed chair at University of Southern California.

While at Bogliasco, Lisa Leeman will be writing and editing her documentary film Walk by Me, a portrait of a transgender artist’s life over thirty years, which is a follow-up to her groundbreaking first documentary, Metamorphosis (Sundance Filmmakers Trophy; POV/PBS, 1990). Filmed over nine years, Walk by Me weaves past and present to explore aging, art and resiliency, faith, friendship, and the blurred boundaries in documentary filmmaking.

Upcoming Fellows

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Dance

Nichole Canuso

Choreographer – United States

Nichole Canuso’s dedication to dance manifests as performances, installations, films and intimate dialogues. Her projects often use technology to bring performers and audiences together in tender exchanges. Her work has been awarded fellowships (Pew fellow 2017; New York Stage & Film fellow 2021) and presented nationally (New York Live Arts, American Repertory Theater, Los Angeles Performance Practice) and internationally (Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Czech Republic).

While in residence Nichole will be developing Lunar Retreat, a multi-sensory, interactive performance installation. Named after the slow, rhythmic inevitability of the growing distance between the earth and the moon, Lunar Retreat explores our individual and communal experiences of the cycles of caretaking, loss and transformation. Choreographic prompts on headphones will guide participants into a labyrinthine performance experience in which they can explore and reflect both alone and together.

Dance

Jennifer Harge

Choreographer, artist, and educator – United States

Jennifer Harge is an artist and educator based in Detroit, Michigan. Using movement as an organizing principle, she spills across choreography, installation, film, and language—collapsing form and gifting herself the freedom to play, wander, and be with multiplicity. Her creative research conjures and theorizes Black pleasures and longings through intimate collaborations with her ancestral lineages and direct arts community.

FLY | DROWN is a storytelling project honoring Black women’s self-sovereignty. Told from the perspective of Black women’s flesh, dreams, homes, and prayers, FLY | DROWN is a world where Black women can simply be. Harge is currently developing a new chapter introducing JJ LOVE: a Black, queer auntie from everywhere and nowhere, who centers Black women’s sexuality as a “tender space of sanctuary, self-imagination, intimacy and creative play… (Jennifer C. Nash, 2018).”

Dance

Sam Kim

Choreographer – United States

Sam Kim is an experimental choreographer, dancer and teacher who has been making and performing in dances for over two decades. She was born to Korean immigrants, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. Sam has received multiple commissions from Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Zenon Dance Company, The Chocolate Factory Theater, The Kitchen, PS122, New York Live Arts, Dance Theater Workshop and Highways Performance Space (LA), among many others, to make and present her body of work.

Sam looks forward to the premiere of her latest work, The Fall, at The Chocolate Factory Theater in fall 2025. Inspired by her recent works, Procession and Angle of Incidence, as well as American Ninja Warrior and The Olympics, The Fall will traffic in high-stakes athletic action and scrutiny to make visible the shape and force of human will.